Published by APTN National News // Written by Fraser Needham
The head of an Indigenous housing organization says he feels let down by the federal government’s fall economic update.
In that update, Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland offered $1 billion over seven years starting in 2025 towards affordable housing – not enough says Marc Maracle.
“Certainly the urban Indigenous housing providers and the rental market collectively on the social housing side is disappointed because it simply doesn’t address the urgency certainly from an urban Indigenous perspective,” Maracle, the executive director of Gignul Non-Profit Housing Corp., said on the latest edition of Nation to Nation.
Gignul is based in Ottawa and strives to provide affordable housing for First Nations, Inuit and Métis people in the National Capital Region.
There is, however, some money coming for Indigenous housing.
In January 2023, the federal government announced $287 million for the National Indigenous Collaborative Housing Inc. (NICHI), a coalition of Indigenous housing organizations based in urban, rural and northern areas. Applications for that money open on Nov. 24.
But given the need across the country by Indigenous organizations, Maracle said that money “certainly isn’t going to go far.”
